Cambridge Pixel Targets Air Traffic Control Market with Enhanced RadarView Display Software

Cambridge Pixel, a developer of radar display, tracking and recording sub-systems, has enhanced its RadarView radar visualisation software to help air traffic control (ATC) integrators and sensor providers to deploy, configure, optimise and maintain radars in air traffic surveillance applications.

The ready-to-run PC-based RadarView display software has been optimised for the ATC market with the addition of new features including extended support for ADS-B (ASTERIX CAT-21) and surveillance co-ordination function (ASTERIX CAT-17) data. SCF messages are used to co-ordinate the operation of multiple Mode S sensors in an installation.

Cambridge Pixel has also added target detection statistics to verify radar performance so that, for example, the percentage of valid detections per scan can be viewed, and radar coverage capability is included to optimise the location for a radar or sensor based on line-of-sight visibility.

The RadarView software also now supports the next generation of Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars (MSSR) from companies such as Easat, Indra, Hensoldt, and Raytheon, as well as traditional SSRs.

David Johnson, CEO of Cambridge Pixel, said: “Our enhanced RadarView software is a highly flexible tool for ATC integrators or sensor providers that require a low cost, ready-to-run primary radar display application to help them to deploy, configure, optimise and maintain radars in air traffic surveillance applications.

“RadarView is already used by companies such as Saab ATM, Kelvin Hughes and leading MSSR providers for their installations as it gives them early visibility of the functionality of radars and sensors ahead of final commissioning.”

RadarView allows radar video and camera images to be viewed in multiple windows using standard PC and graphics technology. The software tool receives, processes and scan converts multiple channels of radar video in normal PPI (plan position indicator) view, and, for more specialist requirements, supports B-Scan and A-Scan formats - the latter is especially useful for radar configuration and set-up.  Information from Asterix messages is presented as a customisable overlay on the PPI views.

Cambridge Pixel also provides its HPx-346 card for customers that want to convert analogue radar signals, from a legacy system for example, into a standard open network data stream such as ASTERIX CAT-240.

RadarView is part of Cambridge Pixel’s world-leading SPx suite of software libraries and applications which provide highly flexible, ready-to-run software products or ‘modules-of-expertise’ for radar visualisation, radar video distribution, plot extraction and target tracking. This provides a powerful set of processing and display components for capture and presentation of radar video using the capabilities of modern multi-core processors and graphics processor units (GPUs).

Cambridge Pixel’s engineering team has decades of experience of developing complex radar processing and display systems for naval, air traffic control, vessel traffic, security, surveillance and airborne radar applications.

Its systems have been implemented in mission-critical applications with companies such as BAE Systems, Frontier Electronic Systems, Blighter Surveillance Systems, Harris, Hanwha Systems, Kelvin Hughes, Lockheed Martin, Navtech Radar, Raytheon, Saab Sensis, Royal Thai Air Force, Sofresud and Tellumat.

RadarView is Cambridge Pixel's PC-based radar visualisation software. It is a complete ready-to-run Windows application that receives, processes and scan converts multiple channels of radar video in PPI, B-Scan and A-Scan formats.